Directions of the Privy Council in case of pestilence.

Date:
[1831]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Directions of the Privy Council in case of pestilence. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    [ man in that capital was attacked, and that a very large propor- tion died; although we know, that of the small number of me- dical men at Cronstadt, four died ; that in Astracan all the nurses and almost all the doctors were attacked ; and that in Vienna, out of the first one hundred deaths in the whole of that great capital, three were medical men. Much is said, or whispered, as to the impolicy of exciting fear. We suspect that the influence of this passion in predis- posing the body to contagion, has been exaggerated; but if that were otherwise, which would be likely to produce the j more injurious effects,—the fear that may be excited now, or that which must be excited in case of the sudden apparition of this pestilence in the very bosom of our families ? The system of discountenancing fear has been tried abundantly. Before the plague appeared at Marseilles, a wise man gave two pieces of advice to the magistracy of that town.-—‘ Consider every sudden death as suspicious—Despise the squabbles of physicians.’ The magistrates despised his advice, and fifty thousand of the inhabi- tants perished before the doctors admitted that the disease w'as contagious. At Messina the same course was followed. No precaution was adopted. All at once the pest was found raging, and the populace rose in the frenzy of wrath and despair, and glutted themselves with murder. As to individuals, in our humble opinion, the manly discipline of mind for impending danger, is to contemplate its coming, cal- culate its effects, and prepare; and we warn our rulers that if they I neglect those preparations which they alone can make, the re- sponsibility they incur is solemn. The question of contagiousness i or non-contagiousness, having in prudence established the quaran- tine, they may safely leave to the physicians ; the fact of the mor- tality of cholera, when it once reaches any country, is that which i ought now to occupy their minds and direct their measures, i This pest destroys here a sixth, there a fourth, and in a third town ■ a half of the population. When such things 'are going on in a ' great town, what business is it that must not stop ? What art can j hinder thousands from being plunged into absolute want ? or who = will pause to ask whether the poison hovers in the air, or is trans- i mitted from person to person ? The instinct is to avoid the place ■—and it is ail but uncontrollable. Nothing will induce any man to remain, who has it in his power to remove, except the know- ledge that the government has done its duty—that all precautions have been adopted, and all pre-arrangements made. The more rigorous the laws, and the more strictly they are enforced, the more certainly will the government be pronounced a merciful one, at the time by the intelligent, in the sequel by all. VOL. XLVI, NO. xci. T Art,
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